Finders keepers

Schools in the North-west are bucking the national trend by recruiting more new teachers than most other areas - and by keeping them once they've been hired. Nicholas Pyke finds out how it's done

This month's Ofsted report on the state of teacher recruitment did nothing to lighten the gloom. "Difficulties in recruiting and retaining teachers are increasing," it concluded. The shortage of staff is threatening the quality of teaching in a range of subjects, including English, maths, science, foreign languages, and design and technology. Primary schools are struggling to find good teachers for their nursery and reception classes. Schools and inspectors are united in their belief that things are going to get worse before they get better.

At a local level, however, the picture is more variable. While London, the Midlands and the eastern region are suffering badly, other regions appear to be riding out the storm. One of these is the North-west, despite having one of the largest conurbations and some of the toughest schools in the country. The area from Carlisle down to Cheshire has only 300 unfilled vacancies a year in primary and secondary schools, making it the second most successful region in the country for recruitment. On this measure, only the rural South-west is, narrowly, more successful.

Professor Alan Smithers, from the Centre for Education and Employment at Liverpool University, says the North-west is helped by a ready supply of low-cost housing, an important advantage over the south east. There is also a more stable workforce in the region's schools. "There's less teacher turnover, therefore the early experiences of the teaching trainees can be in more settled institutions," he says. In turn, they are persuaded to stay put.

Another major factor is the wealth of training institutions west of the Pennines – which, says Professor John Howson, a teacher recruitment analyst and director of Education Data Surveys, may even be a glut. "There's over-training in the North-west," he says. If anything, it's more of a buyer's than a seller's market there."

Manchester Metropolitan University is one of the biggest suppliers of newly qualified teachers in the country, for example. But the same city also has trainees coming out of Manchester University. Down the East Lancs Road, Liverpool John Moores and the collection of religious foundations that make up Liverpool Hope University are big players in the market, even if Liverpool University no longer takes part. Further north, Edge Hill College at Ormskirk is a big supplier of teachers for Lancashire, along with St Martin's in Lancaster. Even Carlisle is in on the act, boasting its own trainees thanks to an outpost of Northumbria University in the town.

As a result, potential trouble spots, such as Liverpool and Manchester, say they are confident about finding staff for the start of the next term. Paul Chidgey, the recruitment strategy manager for Manchester, says that his head teachers had to look hard for nursery and early years staff this year. Now, though, the only outstanding concern is finding teachers for Key Stage 2, the upper end of primary school. There is a surplus of Key Stage 1 teachers in the region.

Manchester is bidding with neighbouring boroughs Oldham and Salford for the right to run a joint, school-based training initiative, taking one-third of its students from ethnic minority groups. If anything, authorities, such as Oldham, on the fringe of the metropolitan area find recruitment more difficult than Manchester because they lack the element of city-centre cachet.

While the sheer number of student teachers is a big plus factor in the region, it is not the only consideration. In common with most other local education authorities, Manchester struggles to find and keep experienced staff. "There are teachers in front of all the classes, but there's a shortage of experienced teachers," says Chidgey. "You can't run schools with nothing but NQTs." This puts the emphasis firmly on the troubled question of teacher retention, which, according to the recent Ofsted report, remains the biggest weakness in the approach taken by LEAs.

Fortunately, Lancashire County Council, the biggest player in the regional market with more than 650 schools, is an exception. Lancashire has taken 10 years to devise a strategy for attracting and keeping good teachers. The work done by Nina Southworth, the county's recruitment strategy manager for the last 15 years, has long been recognised by the Department for Education and Skills, as well as the Teacher Training Agency, who regularly call on her advice. Then, earlier this month, she was appointed OBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours list. As a jubilant county council said at the time: "Lancashire has no posts that remain unfilled."

The authority works hard to persuade 400 newly qualified teachers a year to come and teach in its schools. It has a close relationship with staff and students at St Martins in Lancaster and Edge Hill. It also has a well-established career route, enabling para professionals – classroom assistants and clerical staff – to train as teachers. But what stands out is Lancashire's interest in hanging on to its existing workforce. After three years in the job, more than 90 per cent of its newly qualified teachers are still in the profession. The national average is around 75 per cent.

"We have a well-developed strategy," says Ms Southworth. "It's about long-term investment in the workforce. We want to portray ourselves as very good employers. We like to feel we have a close relationship with schools, teachers and teacher associations in the region. As a result, our teacher-retention rates are very good."

Like other LEAs, it provides career pathways and training opportunities for the ambitious. What really marks it out, however, is Lancashire's willingness to be flexible about working conditions for staff with extra responsibilities, teachers who may be in a mood to quit, or people considering returning to the profession after a spell away.

"It's a work-life balance issue," she says. "We actively encourage people to work part time. In particular, we're very good at retaining teachers who have been disaffected. What we do is provide them with guidance and support. We try and put together a personal development plan to meet the individual's needs – help them stay in employment or move back into teaching."

Now the county is trying to reform the casual supply market through a partnership with Reed employment agency. In an effort to turn supply teachers into settled staff, full- or part-time, Lancashire is promising to pay according to the standard pay spine, and make pension contributions if they sign with Reed. In return, the company will pay for training to help teachers, particularly those returning to the profession, to find the job and school they want.

education@independent.co.uk